Bittersweet
by dorac
Summary: Juvia meets a handsome stranger as she heads towards her new job at 'La Queue De Fee' restaurant and although she embarassed herself horribly, she secretly wants to meet him again. Will she get another chance or was that their last encounter? On the other hand, how are the romance lives of her coworkers progressing? Lots of Gruvia, and some Nalu, Jerza, and GaLe.


**A/N: HI GUYS! I'm back with another fanfic. Sorry to those that may be waiting for 'Of Birthday and Memories' because I don't think I will be updating anytime soon now that I have this story started. I will try to get back to it but I lost motivation because less and less people started reading it. **

**Anyways, this story is based on a restaurant type of scenario and is dedicated to Gruvia, Nalu, Jerza, and Gale. The main pairing will be Gruvia though. This is based on my experiences as a line cook and I hope you enjoy! The words in italics are Juvia's thoughts. By the way, La Queue de Fee means 'Fairy's Tail' in French and I just used Google Translate for it so don't kill me if its actually wrong! :p  
**

**Chapter 1: Bacon, pancakes, and eggs. **

The smell of bacon and eggs crept its way over to the living room, while a small hint of vanilla lingered over the stovetop. With one swift whisk, the ingredients swirled and became a mixture of lemony yellow.

Why is he still not awake? The girl thought as she ladled some batter into the pan. She looked to her right and realized that her bacon has finally sizzled to the right crispness, just like how her roommate liked it. The girl graeds the slices of fatty bacon with her two fingers and quickly droped it beside one of the plates of cheesy omelet, careful not to hold it long enough to hurt her fingers. A low, rough 'morning' was heard as the girl flipped the pancakes onto two plates.

"Gajeel-kun, eat breakfast and hurry!" The girl ran over to the brute man as he slumped onto a nearby chair next to the wooden table. She placed the plate of pancakes, eggs and bacon right in front of him and tossed him the bottle of maple syrup. The man glared at her.

"Stop rushin' me, woman!" The man ruffled his long mane of black hair and stared down at his plate, "Yo Juvia, what happened to my eggs?"

Juvia stops to look at his broken omelet that looked as if a car ran over it.

"Sorry Gajeel-kun," Juvia laughed, "It is Juvia's first day of work, remember? No time to make everything all nice and pretty!"

Gajeel grunted and digged into his plate, while the girl grabbed a fork and started stuffing pancakes into her mouth. She didn't even bother to sit down, and within five minutes she was done her breakfast. The black-haired man cocked an eyebrow.

"Yo, be careful not to choke you stupid." He casually remarked.

"war yo tockeng jus putt da dexh en kink," Juvia said incoherently and danced towards the door. Her face resembled a playful chipmunk with too much food and the girl joyfully checked herself in front of the mirror before she practically jumped into her shoes.

"What you sayin'? Can't hear shit bro." Gajeel gave her half a smirk and finished the last of his bacon and threw the dirty dishes into the sink.

"I said just put the dishes into the sink and I'll wash them! Oh my gosh, that's why Juvia always needs to buy new dishes because stupid Gajeel-kun throws them like it's a Frisbee!" Juvia frowned and crossed her arms in annoyance, which in turn amused the man, but she hastily fixed her ponytail and turned to leave.

"You said all that? Anyways see ya," The forceful man mumbled, and caught a glimpse of her smile.

"Juvia hopes Gajeel does not kill anyone at work today"

Hearing that Gajeel gave a_ gihihi_ , an infamous chortle of his, and his eyes glowed a bright, murderous red.

" and Juvia wishes good luck on her first day of work!"

With that, the girl disappeared, ready to take on anything at her new job.

* * *

Jellal was busy dumping a bunch of vegetables and beef stock into the pot, while on the other hand, making a pan of hollandaise on the fly. He glanced at the fish-shaped clock on the wall to his left, wondering why the hell the restaurant has such a weird clock, and also wondering why his stupid sous-chef hasn't shown up yet. The restaurant was going to open in exactly half an hour and he needed someone to set up the line fast. Maybe he should give that moron a call and give him a good lecture.

With one movement, he poured the finished hollandaise into a metal insert and dumped it into the hot water bath. Then he leapt to grab his cellphone that has been lying on the toaster-oven, ready to frantically punch in the sous' number. Out of the blue, his sous chef strolled heedlessly into the kitchen.

"Yo Jellal", the boy grinned and then proceeded to pour himself a nice cup of Americano, "Sup?"

"Don't you 'Sup?' me, Natsu," Jellal retorted, and Natsu gave a careless smile, "You know you're late by an hour? I can't do everything by myself!"

Jellal's golden eyes were glowing with anger, "You do that again and I will have you fired!"

Jellal's outburst was countered by Natsu's scoff. They both knew that no way in hell was Natsu going to get fired. After all, Natsu's father Igneel owned the company. Igneel was a potent man that was very straight-to-the-point; the man used to own many restaurants in Magnolia but due to his old age, he decided to sell out most of his restaurants except for two. And 'La Queue de Fee' was one of them.

"HEY HEY…calm down Jellal!" Natsu walked over with a cup on one hand and casually placed his other arm around the annoyed Chef's shoulder, "I just wanted to give you some time alone with our lovely manager."

With that, Jellal's face flushed like a bright red tomato, and pushed the sous chef away.

"Ugh, just help me set up, moron," Jellal quickly brushed the issue aside while Natsu laughed at his flustered face before he took a gulp of his coffee.

"Erza's not even scheduled in this morning…" Jellal mumbled to himself, tone lacing with displeasure. The Chef then looked up to find Natsu dipping his fingers into the hollandaise to give it a 'taste-test'.

"Yo," Jellal said, right before the pink-haired boy licked his finger.

" One of the new line cooks should be here any minute, can you get her new uniform ready? Right after that, quickly finish setting up," Jellal stated. The boy gave a cheeky grin.

"Her? You hired a girl?!" Natsu laughed, and Jellal jokingly squirted ketchup on his apron, "Hey what did you do that for?!"

"Cas you're an idiot." Jellal teased, his voice elevated, "What, you don't like girls, Natsu?"

"Tch," Natsu grumbled, and strided towards the storage room.

The Chef smirked, and added, "Heh, I thought you liked blondies."

* * *

Tick Tock. Tick Tock. Juvia checked her watch nervously as her bus arrived to the stop 'Fiore Street'. Juvia bashfully said a quick 'thanks' to the bus driver before she practically jumped off the bus. Without a moment's hesitation, the bluenette dashed as fast as she could towards the restaurant. She has exactly 5 minutes to get there before she was late for work. Stupid public transit. That's what happens when you don't own a car. Juvia sighed.

Fiore Street was definitely rated as one of the most beautiful areas of Magnolia; Juvia noticed how this argument was justified because of the beautiful and colourful flowers that bloom around the park, where friends, family and lovers gather for a peaceful stroll on the paved stone lined path. The bluenette's lips tugged upwards into a gentle smile as she gazed upon the couple holding hands, casually enjoying each other's company. Juvia turned to the left and her eyes darted from one shop to another and noted how many artisan stores there were. Many youths like to hang around this street during the night as well since many pubs and clubs are located along the road.

_Oh, a frozen yoghurt parlour!_ One of Juvia's favourite frozen treats was definitely fresh fruit frozen yoghurt.

_I better remember to- _

Juvia's thoughts were disrupted as she bumped face first into some sort of wall.

"Ow…" The girl covered her nose with her right hand and her left hand started to feel up the 'wall' that she bumped against. _Why is this concrete wall so soft…._

The bluenette looked up and instead of being greeted by dirty old bricks or stone, her eyes pleasantly met with dark, mysterious orbs of a man. Juvia's face flushed fifty shades of red as she realized the charming individual standing before her.

"Sorry miss, are you alright?" The man's expression was of worry and compassion.

_Such handsome features…and he's so kind too!_

Juvia snapped out of her reverie and waved her hand in front of her, "No don't apologize! It was Juvia's fault! I should be the one to say sorry…" Her voice trailed off as she studied him closer.

_Oh my goodness, Juvia felt his chest earlier too! Ugh…how embarrassing. _

The boy ran his hand along his dark, raven spiky hair, "Well, as long as you're okay."

The man smiled, and he started to walk away.

Suddenly, he turned around to speak again.

"Um…see you around?"

Juvia nodded in a stupor as her eyes followed the man who just walked off towards the opposite direction; her heart was still beating hard, threatening to leap out of her rib cage.

She realized then that she didn't answer back.

She hit her forehead with the heel of her palm and laughed at herself.

_Juvia's always doing such unappealing things! Hopefully I never see him again…_

The bluenette continued her way up the street, trying desperately to forget the attractive young man, and within a few moments she noticed a huge wooden sign that read "LA QUEUE DE FEE".

_This is it_. Juvia inwardly squealed at herself.

Her first day as a line cook!

* * *

"Jellal-san, good morning," Juvia bowed as she saw the Chef chopping some green onions.

"Hey Juvia!" The blue-haired man ushered her over, "my sous-chef will give you a quick orientation and also give you your uniform. You can change at the back in the staff washroom and get ready to start training."

The girl nodded and obediently followed the pink-haired boy behind her.

"I am Natsu by the way," the boy grinned wide, showing off his fang-like teeth, "you must be wondering if I dyed my hair salmon-coloured on purpose, but nope you're wrong. It's natural."

Juvia's eyes darted from the boy's fangs to his hair as they walked into the office. What a strange human being. He could be some sort of reincarnation of a dragon, really. Juvia obviously didn't voice her thoughts in front of him in case he got offended.

Natsu quickly climbed on top of the desk to reach one of the boxes located over the top shelf. The boy reached inside and grabbed a few pieces of clothing for Juvia.

"Juvia thinks you have pretty hair, Natsu-san," Juvia said as she grabbed onto the tee shirt and chef pants that the boy handed her.

"Really?!" Natsu jumped back down, "Luce thinks I look like some kind of Korean popstar wannabe."

Juvia head tilted slightly as she followed him out of the room, "Who is Luce?"

The boy looked at her and Juvia noticed the slight peachy blush that appeared on his face.

"Oh you will meet her soon," Natsu quickly answered, face still visibly red, and scratched his head out of embarrassment, "She's amazing, really."

_Someone's in love of course_. Juvia choked back a laugh, "I see, Natsu-san. I hope I find her just as amazing as you do."


End file.
